


it's Friday; I'm in love

by villiageidiot



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-27
Updated: 2011-06-27
Packaged: 2017-12-06 05:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/732007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/villiageidiot/pseuds/villiageidiot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They fight in the back of coffee shops and let Finn win Scrabble games and really, really screw up the long distance thing (and then totally nail the long distance thing) and basically spend a lot of time being in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's Friday; I'm in love

:::

They break up on a Thursday and get back together on a Tuesday.

It's a Saturday when they decide on 'just friends' and a Monday when they decide that 'just friends' isn't enough.

On Wednesdays they don't do much talking. On Sunday they don't do much of anything.

And on Fridays, well, that's when pretty much everything else happens.

:::

 

**Thursday:**

They have a sudden, short-lived breakup on a Thursday during their senior year but really, it starts the week before.

It stems from the fact that Blaine makes a few realizations about himself now that he has a boyfriend, things that he never would have known beforehand. He's surprised to find out, for example, that he's not into public declarations of _I love you_ wherein he serenades Kurt with song in front of hundreds of people but he _is_ into whispering _I love you I love you_ into Kurt's neck after Blaine pulls him into the astronomy classroom to make out in between second and third period. He's surprised to find out how much he likes to pay for dinner or ice cream when they go out because it makes him feel like Kurt is _his_ boyfriend but he secretly likes it when Kurt insists on paying for a movie or theater tickets because it makes him feel like he's _Kurt's_ boyfriend. He finds out that he sort of loves staying in for a movie night on Fridays but he also sort of loves holding Kurt's hand when they go out on Saturdays.

And then he's surprised to learn that in extreme situations, Blaine has a major propensity for jealousy while Kurt has very little tolerance for it.

So on the Thursday before the abrupt breakup, Kurt comes rushing into the lunchroom where Blaine's sitting with Mike enjoying Taco Salad Day.

"You will not believe what just happened," he tells Blaine, sliding into the chair next to Mike.

Blaine puts his fork down because really, there _are_ things more important than a taco salad and because he finds Kurt's enthusiasm undeniably contagious. "Okay, tell me," he says.

Kurt's still breathless and grinning like crazy. "The local PFLAG chapter called. They want to come to McKinley and interview me for a story about last year's prom."

"What?" Blaine asks, eyes wide. "That's awesome."

"I know, isn't it? This is my very first interview," he says. "It's good practice for when I'm in New York and reporters are throwing themselves at me."

"Well, yeah," Blaine replies. "But it's also good for gay teenagers everywhere. You'll make a difference just by getting your story out there."

"Of course, _obviously_ ," he says with a hand flourish. "But also, my name will be in print for the first time."

He smiles at Kurt. "That's pretty awesome."

"And they want to talk to my boyfriend," Kurt continues. " _Your_ name will be in print, too."

He mulls that over because yeah, that's awesome.

"Blaine," Kurt says in a hushed whisper, sounding very serious. "We're practically a celebrity couple already. We're like, three steps away from needing an agent. Or a PR rep at least."

Blaine bites his lip to keep from laughing. "We can worry about that later. Right now, you should just focus on your PFLAG article."

"Right, of course," Kurt says, not looking at Blaine anymore. Blaine can tell he's already planning on what to wear to the interview. And then he's standing up and walking out of the lunchroom without even saying goodbye.

"That's pretty cool," Mike tells him. And then: "You should probably eat your salad before it gets cold."

::

The reporter shows up the next Tuesday during their lunch period. Blaine can instantly tell he's a reporter because he looks marginally smarmy with his steno pad and because he zeroes in on Kurt with a smile as soon as he walks in to the cafeteria. He's tall with floppy blond hair and bright green eyes and tanned skin and a bunch of things that Blaine _isn't_. He's wearing a preppy collared shirt, looking like every other college kid Blaine's ever met, and for some reason he's immediately self-conscious.

He walks up to their table and smiles at Kurt, the kind of smile that's practically bordering on a leer. Blaine ignores that thought, though, because clearly he's imagining things.

"Kurt Hummel, right?" he asks, still smiling. He and Kurt are sitting alone at the table having yet another semi-serious conversation about college but the reporter doesn't even acknowledge Blaine's presence. "I've heard so much about you."

Kurt looks up at him and doesn't say anything, just raises an eyebrow. Blaine contemplates the likelihood of college kid hearing _so much_ about a high school senior and then abstractly wonders if this guy's been hanging out on Kurt's Facebook page because how the hell else would he know anything about Kurt? Or know what he looks like?

Blaine's immediately on edge and then subsequently feels weird about being on edge so quickly because yeah, that seems kind of impulsive, even for him.

"Billy," the reporter says. "From Outlook Media."

Kurt's eyes go wider than Blaine's ever seen them. "Oh my god, I didn't know you were coming today. I didn't dress for this."

Billy laughs like maybe he's flirting and gives Kurt a not-so-subtle once over. Blaine wonders if that's normal behavior.

"Are you kidding? You look fantastic." And okay, Blaine _knows_ that's not normal behavior.

"Thank you," Kurt says. It comes out sounding pretty modest and Blaine can tell he's a little distracted, still thinking about his interview ensemble sitting at home.

"You're welcome," he says. "I saw a picture of your glee club in the paper earlier this year and you looked great but here in person, I see that picture doesn't do you justice."

"Oh," Kurt says, completely oblivious. "That was taken right after Sectionals. The reporter wouldn't even let me fix my hair. So unprofessional."

Billy smiles again and yeah, that one definitely looked more like a creepy leer. "Is there somewhere we can go to talk? An empty classroom maybe?"

Blaine's eyes widen. This guy is sizing up his boyfriend and asking to go to someplace _secluded._ There's no way that this can be normal. He wonders if he should Google this guy on his phone to see if he's actually a legit reporter or if he's just some skeevy cyber-stalker that's trying to seduce his boyfriend.

Blaine shakes his head to try to clear his thoughts because logically he _has_ to be exaggerating this whole ordeal. He's simply trying to create drama where there is no drama and he tells himself over and over that he's just being irrational and frankly, a little ridiculous.

"Sure," Kurt tells him. "Follow me. Blaine, the Geometry room is empty during this period, right?"

"I think so, yeah," he answers and moves to follow him out of the lunchroom.

"Oh, are you coming?" Billy asks, looking thoroughly unamused.

Blaine eyes him. "Of course."

"They said over the phone that they'd want to talk to my boyfriend, too," Kurt says.

Blaine thinks of saying that that's not why he's following them; he's tagging along because he thinks maybe someone should supervise whatever it is that's about to go down in the empty Geometry room.

"Oh, right," Billy answers and there's no way Blaine's imagining how disappointed he sounds. "But I doubt we'll need him."

Billy watches him and Blaine's eyes widen again as Billy seemingly initiates a stare-down. He wonders if this guy is for real, if he's actually serious about some weaponless showdown in the middle of a high school cafeteria.

"Okay," Kurt says. "But he can still come, right?"

Billy hesitates and Blaine breaks the stare-down to look over at Kurt who is registering _none_ of this. "Sure, I guess."

They get to the classroom and Blaine makes sure to take the seat right next to Kurt.

"Before we get started," Billy says, "I should get your number in case I have any other questions."

Blaine can't help but to gape at Kurt as he actually _does_ it.

"And as a followup, we should set something up for later this week. Maybe something over dinner."

Blaine's still gaping at Kurt when he _agrees._

He finally gets started with the interview and asks strange questions like what his prom suit looked like and what color his boutonniere was. Kurt answers everything tactfully and with such sincerity that Blaine can't help but to smile and force himself to forget about the giant tool sitting across from them.

Kurt's telling the story of how he asked Blaine to prom and Billy does the tackiest thing ever and _interrupts_ him. "Wait, you guys were dating how long?"

Kurt thinks for a minute and looks over at Blaine. "It was two months, right?"

"Right," Blaine agrees with a smile. He thinks back on Prom and on Regionals and on the outdoor McKinley serenade and most definitely on their subdued admissions in the back of a coffee shop right after Kurt's return from Nationals.

"Two months," Billy says with a whistle. "That's not long at all."

"About nine months now," Blaine interjects. "So. You know. There's that."

"Nine months," Billy echoes. "Still, not really that long at all."

Blaine wonders how professional some of these comments are and glances over at Kurt who is still _not getting this at all._ "That's pretty long actually," Kurt says. "If you compare it to anyone else in the school."

Billy hums a response. "I guess it's all relative."

Blaine has no idea what he means by that but he's pretty sure it's another dig at their relationship.

Kurt shrugs.

"Well, I suppose that's all for now," he tells them as he shuts his notebook. And Blaine wants to ask him what the hell he's talking about because he asked like, five questions.

"Dinner tomorrow night perhaps? We can really hammer everything out if it's just the two of us."

"Oh, okay," Kurt answers, a little taken aback.

"I can call you to set up the details. And if it would be okay, I think it'd be a good idea to talk to your dad and your family to ask a few more questions. Next week, possibly?"

"Sure," Kurt says. "I'll check with my dad."

Billy stands up to walk out of the room and gives Blaine a small smile. "Good luck," he says softly, looking Blaine right in the eye, and wow, Blaine's never heard someone try to sound so confrontational in a whisper before. What is this guy's _deal_ , anyway? He sees a few pictures in the newspaper and decides it's time for a face-off over some kid he's never even met? It makes like, no sense at all. (Although Blaine remembers how good Kurt looked in those pictures so maybe it makes a little sense.)

Then as he reaches the door, he turns to give Blaine a small wink and he can almost hear him saying, _Game on, kid._ Blaine turns quickly to see if Kurt actually caught it because there's no way he can still be _that_ unaware.

Kurt looks confused for a second then shrugs it off and turns to look at Blaine. He's beaming. "That was incredible."

Blaine stares at him, stunned. "Are you being serious?

Kurt's smile falters. "You didn't think so?"

"I think it was terribly unprofessional, that's what I think."

Kurt stares at him for a minute and looks disappointed. "I have to get to sixth period," he says softly.

Blaine watches him go.

::

He tries to bring it up again several times during the rest of the day but it always comes out as sort of sullen and childish then ends up with Kurt giving him a confused look and changing the subject.

The next day, Blaine's irritated and completely catty. He realizes that as much as he dislikes the person he becomes when he's jealous, he dislikes the way he keeps picturing them alone at a restaurant even more.

Kurt is just as annoyed and cuts Blaine off every time he brings up Billy. It's a bitter circle; the more Blaine tries to talk about the interview, the more frustrated Kurt gets until they're both a little miserable. Then the cycle begins again.

::

They head to the Lima Bean after school and Blaine starts a fight pretty much immediately as they sit. Kurt tells him that Billy's already called him and Blaine's grateful that they're sitting towards the back because he almost chokes on his coffee.

"He's _into_ you, Kurt," Blaine tells him.

"What? No he isn't."

"Yes, actually, yes he _is_. I don't know why you're refusing to see that!"

"I'm not refusing to see anything! You're just being melodramatic! He's in college, Blaine. What the hell would he want with a high school senior?"

Blaine lets out a frustrated sigh. "He doesn't care that you're in high school, Kurt. He cares that you're you."

"I -- what does that even mean?"

"It means that he was laughing at everything you said and was all, Oooh you look _fantastic_."

Kurt's eyes narrow. "So … what? You don't think other people should find me funny? You don't think other people could find me attractive?"

"Oh my god, that's not what I said."

"Okay, well what _are_ you saying?"

"I'm saying that normal people wouldn't say things like that in front of someone's boyfriend."

Kurt sighs and shakes his head. "Are you jealous? Is that what this is?"

"What?" Blaine asks, wide eyes. "Are you serious?"

"Don't try to deny it."

"Why the hell would I deny that?" he asks. "Of course I'm jealous!"

He pauses because clearly that wasn't the answer he was expecting. "Wait, what?"

"There is another guy _hitting on my boyfriend_ , Kurt. In front of me. I think that's like, the number one reason people get jealous."

Kurt eyes him. "Why in the world would you be jealous?"

Blaine gapes at him. "Oh my god, you're actually serious."

"Meaning?"

Blaine blinks. "Okay, fine, let's do this. For starters, he asked for you number."

"He's interviewing me, Blaine."

"Okay, it's not a phone interview, Kurt," he says, shaking his head like maybe he can't believe they're actually having this conversation. "Then he asked you to dinner."

"Where he's going to be interviewing me."

"Uh huh," Blaine replies with an eye roll. "So then he asked to meet your family. Like a big giant family date."

Kurt sighs. "It's for the story, Blaine."

"And then, and _then_ , he wished me luck and winked at me on his way out!"

"Okay, I'm not sure that's entirely true but no, that part there might not be typical behavior for a reporter."

"Typical?" Blaine can't believe how high his voice sounds. "Nothing about this is typical, Kurt. When's the last time you saw Barbara Walters ask for someone's number? When's the last time Katie Couric leered at someone and said they looked 'fantastic' with a super creepy smile?"

"I don't get you," Kurt tells him, sounding sad. "I really thought you were going to be happy for me and I don't understand why you're not supportive about this."

"Of course I'm happy for you, Kurt," he says, gently grabbing one of Kurt's hands in his own over the table. "And I'm totally supportive. I'm just super uncomfortable with you going on a date. Alone. With a weird college kid that could quite possibly be a cyber stalker. And who's maybe sort of in love with you or something."

"A date?" he asks, and Blaine can tell that he's quickly turning angry. "You think that I think of it as a date?"

"Not you, no," Blaine answers. "But I'm sure as hell that Billy does."

"Ugh," Kurt says, pulling his hand free from Blaine. "Thanks for having so much faith in me and in us. Good to know that our relationship is built on so much trust."

"Come on, that's not what I'm saying and you know it."

Kurt stands up and Blaine can see he's so angry that he's shaking. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go get ready for my date," he says. "But don't worry, I don't put out until at least the third one."

Blaine sighs. "Please don't do this," he tells him. "We should talk first. Let's have a rational conversation."

"Rational?" Kurt laughs bitterly, eyes wide. "I've never seen you act more irrational than you've acted these past two days."

"Agreed," Blaine concedes. "I'll work on that. Just please sit down."

Kurt stares at him like maybe he's considering it. "I'll call you later."

Blaine decides not to ask if he'll call him after his _date_ because he definitely recognizes that as a really poor choice at the moment.

"Fine," he says and he can hear how frustrated his own voice sounds. "Just … fine."

Kurt tilts his head. "Okay, now _you're_ angry."

Blaine does that stupid thing that people do when they say that they're not angry when they clearly, clearly are and says, "No, I'm not. Whatever. I can't convince you to see reason so just go. Have fun. Tell Billy hello for me."

"Hello?" he asks as he raises an eyebrow.

"Sure," Blaine says as he stands. "Tell him congratulations." And oh god, Blaine knows how ridiculous that decision was the second it comes out of his mouth.

"Congratulations?" Kurt echoes and he doesn't sound angry which sort of worries Blaine. "As in, 'congratulations, you've won Kurt'? Like I'm some sort of tacky carnival prize?"

Blaine doesn't say anything because he's smart enough to know that anything he says will unquestionably make this worse.

Kurt shakes his head and turns to walk away. "And people say that _I'm_ the melodramatic one."

Blaine resists the urge to call out after him.

He crosses his arms and notices the little old woman at the next table watching him. She seems confused but also a little intrigued and Blaine looks her right in the eye and says, "I hate that guy. What kind of name is Billy, anyway? Is he a _goat_?"

She widens her eyes and doesn't saying anything.

Suddenly, Blaine realizes that he's in the middle of a coffee shop airing his relationship troubles to the eighty-year-old lady eating her scone and yeah, he's maybe slightly unhinged.

::

And then it's Thursday, _the_ Thursday, and Kurt's walking up to Blaine's locker after the last bell. He worries his bottom lip and says, "I think we should break up."

Blaine blinks. "Sorry, what? It almost sounded like you said --" He cuts himself off because there’s no way that’s what Kurt actually said.

"We should break up," he repeats and okay, apparently that _is_ what he actually said.

"I don’t understand," Blaine says in a hushed tone. "It was one fight."

"I just think we should," he tells Blaine and his voice kind of cracks at the end. He gives Blaine one last glance then turns on his heel to head towards the double doors. Blaine just stands there and stares after him because he’s too stunned to do anything else.

His heart is beating fast and his palms are sweaty and he doesn’t understand what the hell just happened. He calls Kurt later that night but he doesn’t answer and the last thing Blaine wants to do is be a creepy stalker boyfriend so he lets it go for the night. He gets an hour of sleep and stares at his ceiling, feeling a little sick.

The next day is _awful_. He sees Kurt in the hallway a few times and he looks just as horrible, which Blaine doesn’t understand because Kurt’s the one that broke up with him so why does _he_ look so awful?

He approaches Kurt at his locker after fourth period, not really sure what to say. "Can we talk about this?" he asks. "We've gotten past stupid fights before."

Kurt blinks at him and yeah, he looks miserable and it almost makes Blaine heart ache until he remembers that this is what Kurt wants, not the other way around. "You look terrible," Kurt says quietly.

"Yeah," Blaine agrees, a little confused. "My boyfriend just broke up with me after some lame fight. How am I supposed to look?"

"I don’t know," Kurt answers. "I figured you'd -- it's just not how I thought you'd react."

And that definitely upsets Blaine. "What does that even mean? Am I supposed to be celebrating or throwing some kind of party? You _broke up with me,_ " Blaine reminds him.

"I know," Kurt responds.

Blaine lets out a frustrated sigh. "What's going on here, Kurt? There’s no way you're this upset about a dumb fight. This is completely coming from left field."

Kurt only blinks. He's totally silent.

"Kurt?"

"I'm sure you'll be fine, Blaine," he says.

Kurt walks away and once again, Blaine’s a little too shell-shocked to follow after him because what the hell is that supposed to mean?

Glee club is almost unbearable. Blaine sits in the back and sort of looks like the creepy stalker boyfriend that he’s desperately trying so hard not to be. Kurt doesn’t say anything the whole time and pretty much everyone notices because Rachel’s being extra commandeering and Kurt doesn’t say a single word in response. Well, it’s partially because of that but also partially because Kurt still looks pretty terrible and his hair actually looks _uncombed._

Blaine stays in the choir room after everyone clears out. He just sits there because the idea of going home and spending the weekend alone to stew in his thoughts makes him feel like he’s going to be sick.

He doesn’t know how long he sits there but eventually, Finn peeks his head in and startles Blaine.

"Can I talk to you?" Finn asks.

Blaine shrugs. "Go for it."

"So I was going to give you a hard time and ask you what you did to make my brother so depressed but then I saw you and now I don't even know what's going on." Finn takes a seat next to him.

Blaine gives Finn a blank look. "If you find out what I did, will you let me know?"

"So he broke up with _you_?" Finn asks after a while.

He shrugs again. "We had a stupid fight and I guess it was drastic enough for a breakup. I swear, it feels like came out of nowhere."

"Does it have anything to do with that guy he's going to dinner with tonight?"

"Billy?" Blaine asks, a little stunned. "He's actually going to dinner with him tonight?"

Finn doesn’t say anything right away and Blaine is suddenly freaking out. "Wait, does Kurt legitimately like him? Has he said something to you? Is that what this is about?" Which makes absolutely no sense because he's pretty sure that he and Kurt are ridiculously in love but Blaine’s not all that rational at the moment and he can’t think of anything else.

"I … doubt it," Finn says. "I think he’s pretty much hung up on you."

Blaine lets out a sigh of relief.

"Is it about college, do you think?" Finn suggests.

Blaine considers it but it doesn't really make much sense, either. "I don't think so. It's just … we already had the big college discussion. I mean, yeah, it's like, eleven hours so it's not exactly going to be easy but we both agreed that we really want to _try_ at least." He watches Finn for a reaction. "Wait, is that what this is about? Did he change his mind? He wants to be single when he starts school?"

Finn gives him a shrug and a doubtful look. "Like I said, I think he’s pretty hung up on you."

Blaine sighs and leans back in his chair. "I want to fix this but I don’t even know what’s broken."

Finn watches him. "I sort of feel bad for you right now so I'll try to find out."

Blaine nods. Finn leaves him with a sympathetic pat on the shoulder and Blaine steels himself for the longest weekend of his life.

::

Blaine calls him twice, once on Saturday and once on Sunday. Kurt doesn't answer.

His mom doesn't ask what's going on but he's pretty sure she's figured it out by Saturday evening when she oh-so-casually comments that he's spent both Friday and Saturday night at home. That and the fact that nobody mentions Kurt's name the entire weekend makes it pretty obvious.

He doesn't even hear from Finn, which makes the whole thing seem a little more hopeless.

On Friday night, he sends Kurt a text saying, _Will you please call me?_

Saturday, he sends, _Will you at least text me back?_

And on Sunday: _Are you just going to ignore me forever?_

There's never a response but he checks his phone every ten minutes to be sure.

::

It's awkward on Monday because by that point, everyone in glee club knows what's going on. By the end of the day, Blaine's moved past depressed and frustrated to just plain frustrated. They sit at opposite ends of the room and everybody just sort of stares.

"Aren't you going to ... you know?" Artie asks him.

"Going to what?" Blaine answers, sounding incredibly irritated and distinctively unlike his usual self.

"You know," he says. "Like have a big dramatic showdown in front of everyone?"

"What?" Blaine asks. "Why would I do that?"

All eyes are on him, save for Kurt who's pretending to be fascinated by his own hands.

"Oh, I don't know maybe because that's what we _do_?"

Blaine shakes his head. "No. I'm not going to start a big fight in front of everyone."

Most of them look relatively disappointed. And because Blaine can't quit while he's ahead: "Plus, it would be a completely one-sided argument since _someone_ refuses to acknowledge my presence."

He catches Mike's eye from across the room who's shaking his head slightly and mouthing "No."

Blaine sighs, dejected, and slumps back in his chair. He doesn't say anything else until the bell rings, to the dismay of most everyone in the classroom.

Mike waits for him after class and Blaine gives him an unhappy sigh. "So … what? I'm not supposed to try to fix this?"

"That's not what I was trying to say," Mike says. "I meant that you should probably try to fix it privately. You know, with no audience. You're better than that."

Blaine sighs again as he heads to his locker because yeah, he knows he's better than that but Kurt Hummel makes him so damn irrational and good god, it's incredibly frustrating.

He calls Kurt again that night and it goes straight to voice mail. He sends a text an hour later: _I'm sorry about this afternoon. I miss you._

Blaine thinks about how he's _been_ missing Kurt ever since he watched him walk away on that stupid Thursday afternoon.

 

:::

 

**Tuesday:**

It's Tuesday and even though it starts as miserably as the last five days, it's finally all turned around by second period.

Before first period, Kurt walks up to Blaine's locker and just stands there. Blaine stares at him because he's not sure what to say or what's even going on since Kurt's been pretending that Blaine doesn't exist.

"I didn't get your text until this morning," he tells Blaine. They haven't spoken in four days. "I miss you, too."

He waits for Blaine to say something but he's still glued to the spot with his hand hovering over his U.S. Government textbook.

"And if you still want to," Kurt says, hesitating, "I think we should get back together."

"What?" Blaine asks finally.

Kurt worries his bottom lip. "Do you not want to?"

Blaine lets out a surprised, bitter laugh. "Of course I want to!" he says. "But you've spent four days ignoring me and then randomly you want to get back together? I feel like I'm missing something here."

Kurt sighs and leans his back on the locker next to Blaine's. "You spent two days picking fights with me; what was I supposed to think?"

"What?" he asks again, completely confused. "You were supposed to think exactly what you _were_ thinking: that I was getting increasingly jealous over that idiot reporter."

Kurt looks away.

"Why?" Blaine asks him. "What did _you_ think you were supposed to think?"

He shrugs and still doesn't meet Blaine's eyes. "I've seen enough teen romance movies, Blaine."

Blaine almost chokes from surprise. "Clearly you haven't seen enough if you can't recognize plain old-fashioned jealousy!" He knows how high and desperate his voice sounds but he keeps picturing Kurt walking away and ignoring him for another four days so he thinks the desperation is kind of warranted.

"Oh, what, so I was supposed to think it was a coincidence that you started picking fights just mere weeks after our college acceptance letters?" He sounds frustrated and eyes flicker up to Blaine's.

Blaine gapes and continues to be utterly confused. "Okay, _what_?"

Kurt sighs and doesn't elaborate. Blaine knows him well enough to know that Kurt assumes he'll figure it out on his own.

"Okay, I'm going to be perfectly honest right now, Kurt: I'm completely lost." He closes his locker and thinks for a minute before he continues. "Normally I don't push it when I can't quite figure you out because I know your brain works differently than mine and I know you'll explain it to me if it's important enough. I know I'll never always get what goes on in your head but it's just another one of those Kurt Hummel things that I'm crazy about. When your brain starts working in a way that ends with some inexplicable breakup and ignoring me for four days, though, then yeah, I'm going to push it. So what the _hell_ are you talking about?"

Kurt blinks. "You were picking fights."

"Yeah, and?"

"And it was constant for two straight days!"

"I know," Blaine replies. "I was jealous, Kurt. We've already established that those weren't my finest moments."

"See, that's just it, Blaine. Since when do you get jealous? You've never showed a hint of it before."

"Well _yeah_ , Kurt. There's never been someone draping himself all over you right in front of me before. I never exactly had a reason to get jealous."

"Okay, fine," Kurt says. "But all I could focus on is how we're going to be eleven hours away from each other next year and about how you were constantly picking these fights like you _wanted_ me to be mad at you. I've seen that plot line, more or less, on various teen dramas and soap operas throughout the years. What was I supposed to think?"

Blaine tries to piece together what Kurt's not saying. "Are you saying that you thought I was _manipulating_ a breakup out of you?"

Kurt doesn't answer.

He shakes his head, stunned. "Okay, don't you think that my terrible attitude and like, the pure desperation immediately following it was pretty much a dead giveaway that it wasn't what I was doing?"

He shrugs. "I didn't know what to think. I was confused in between trying to convince myself to break up with you and waiting for you to break up with me."

"God, I am not getting this logic at all," Blaine tells him.

"I thought you were still jealous about the interview, okay?"

"I wasn't jealous about the interview, Kurt! I was jealous of the tool interviewing you!"

Kurt gives him an annoyed look. "Yeah, I get that now, thanks."

Blaine doesn't know what to say; the whole discussion is almost surreal.

"You were right, by the way," Kurt adds quietly. "About Billy."

His forehead furrows in confusion. "Right about what?"

"About … you know." He looks embarrassed.

Blaine's eyes widen as he gets it. "What happened over dinner? Did he hit on you again?" And then his stomach gets a little queasy as he asks, "God, did he _kiss_ you?"

Kurt still looks annoyed. "Give me some credit, Blaine. No."

He lets out a breath he doesn't know he was holding.

"But he told me that he saw me perform with the Warblers at last year's competitions and with New Directions at our invitational earlier this year," Kurt continues. "And that he's wanted to meet me ever since he got wind of the whole prom debacle. I'm sure I'm supposed to be flattered by it but mostly, I just felt like an idiot."

"An idiot," Blaine repeats flatly.

"I didn't care that some stranger was throwing all this praise my way," Kurt continues. "I just cared that you were so upset by it. You were right about the whole thing and all I could think about was how dumb I looked and how terribly humiliating it would be to tell you how right you were."

Blaine's eyes narrow. "So you stuck with the breakup out of _pride_?"

"No," Kurt says, exasperated. "I kept focusing on how mortifying it would be when you turned me down and told me all about your new boyfriend."

"New boyfriend," Blaine repeats, sounding dry. "I got a new boyfriend in two days? Sure, that makes total sense."

He lets out a frustrated sigh. "Look, I don't mock you when you're not entirely rational, do I?"

And yeah, actually he totally _does_ but: "Sorry," Blaine apologizes. "You're right. Continue."

"I don't know, Blaine. I pretty much just felt like an idiot over the weekend and then you seemed so _angry_ on Monday and I didn't know what to say. But then I got that text from you this morning and I thought ..." he trails off.

"Thought what?" Blaine prompts.

He shrugs. "I thought maybe you still wanted to date me."

Blaine laughs and Kurt flinches. "Of course I want to date you, Kurt. Do you know how miserable I was this weekend feeling that disconnected from you?"

"I'm sorry," he says. "I just -- with your irritability and the college thing, I didn't know what to think."

Blaine leans his back against his locker, staring at the empty hallway. "College thing," he echoes, sounding sad. "What do _you_ have to be worried about, anyway?"

He feels Kurt lean his back on the locker next to him. "What does that mean?"

"Oh come on, Kurt," he says with an eye roll. "We'll be in college next year. I'm fully aware of what I can expect. These past few days have shown me how completely unprepared I am."

"I -- what?"

"Guys will be hitting on you left and right," Blaine groans. "It's going to be awful."

"Me?" Kurt says, voice high. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Blaine asks. He turns to face Kurt, shoulder still pressed up against his locker. "You've got that classic beauty, Kurt. Even the straight guys are going to fall in love with you."

Kurt lets out a disbelieving sigh and turns to face Blaine, his side still leaning against the locker. "Are you kidding me? You're so charismatic that I bet you the _faculty_ is in love with you by the second week of classes." He pauses and then: "What do you mean by 'classic beauty'? Like a _girl_?"

"What?" Blaine asks, startled. "No. As in flawless skin and impeccable hair and piercing eyes and intense voice and just … everything else." He sighs and stares at Kurt for a minute. "Wait, what do you mean 'charismatic'? Like, I'm some flirty egomaniac?"

"No," Kurt says. "But everybody likes you and you like everybody back and you're always smiling and happy and perfect and who wouldn't fall for that?"

They both stare at each other for a few minutes, silent.

"I love you," Blaine says softly.

"I love you, too," Kurt replies, just as quiet.

"So where does that leave us?"

Kurt shrugs and watches Blaine.

"I'm miserable," Blaine says finally. "And I have a feeling you are, too."

Kurt doesn't deny it.

"And we're both worried about next year," Blaine continues.

Kurt still doesn't say anything.

"So let's be worried _together_ ," Blaine suggests. "That way we can stop being miserable."

"I'm sorry," Kurt says finally and Blaine gives him a confused look. "You know, for breaking up with you and being kind of melodramatic."

"I'm sorry, too," Blaine tells him. "You know, for being ridiculously jealous and _way_ melodramatic."

The bell rings and Blaine suddenly realizes they both missed all of first period.

Kurt reaches for his hand and doesn't take his eyes off Blaine despite the hallway filling up around them.

"If you _really_ want to be melodramatic," Kurt starts.

He squeezes Kurt's hand and says, "I'm listening."

"Well, we could stage a big fight during glee today. This has to be the shortest breakup the club's ever seen so really, it's the least we can do."

He grins at Kurt. "I'll follow your lead."

And for a minute, Blaine's not even remotely concerned with the battles they'll face in college. He knows that whenever it gets hard, he'll focus on this feeling of invincibility and he'll look back and remember Tuesday.

 

:::

 

**Saturday:**

But it doesn't quite work that way and they're officially over on a Saturday.

It's gradual, of course, and there's not exactly one moment that Blaine can pinpoint and say, _There that's it; that's when everything turned around._

The first three weeks of college are hard, harder than Blaine thought they'd be. It's not like he didn't think he would miss Kurt; it's just more than he was really prepared for. The problem with dating his best friend is that he's dating his _best friend_ and so everything seems to be twice as intense and that much harder. Missing Kurt is like a physical reaction and for those first few weeks, Blaine occasionally feels like he's been punched in the stomach.

Worse, it seems like he and Kurt have as different schedules as humanly possible. It's not like high school when everything was sort of the same. When Blaine was at Dalton, they both had school during the day, glee practice in the afternoon and maybe a coffee date in the evening and then when Blaine transferred, they practically had identical schedules and everything was so _easy._

And that's not how college works, Blaine finds out. To find time to catch up with each other, Blaine sits in the stairwell late at night so as not to wake his roommate and talks to Kurt for hours until neither of them can keep their eyes open.

It seems like every time Blaine has a second to spare, Kurt's in class or eating dinner with some people from his dorm or studying in the library with his cell phone turned off. It's more and more difficult to keep in contact, not that they don't try at first, and their late night stairwell phone calls start affecting Blaine's sleep. It's only a matter of time until their phone calls become shorter and less frequent. And then they stop all together.

After those first few weeks, it becomes a little easier. It's not that Blaine stops missing Kurt because he doesn't stop, nor does he ever expect to; he just starts finding things to fill his time. He starts hanging out every Tuesday with a few guys from his floor in the lounge as they watch cheesy sci-fi movies and order pizza. He joins a study group and spends Thursdays at a coffee shop where they spend half the time studying and the other half socializing. He unwillingly becomes the cliché gay confidant to a few girls in his Psychology class. He goes to every football game and gets wrapped up in the moment and with the intense feeling of belonging and inclusion. After, he feels a twinge of guilt when he sees a missed call or a few texts from Kurt but when he calls back, Kurt's usually sleep. All these things, they help make it easier to stop focusing on how much he misses his boyfriend, his best friend.

And then there are times that it's harder. Blaine calls Kurt without an answer just as often as he misses Kurt's calls. It not just Kurt that sends texts that don't receive a response for hours. It's easy when Blaine's out with friends and missing a call from his boyfriend but when _he's_ the one sitting alone in his dorm willing Kurt to answer his cell phone, it's a lot less easy. When he's bored and procrastinating, he checks out Kurt's Facebook just to see what New York is like, to maybe get a glimpse into his boyfriend's life. Kurt's doesn't spend much time on Facebook but it seems like he's being tagged in photos every ten minutes and Blaine can't help but to look at every one. He wonders about the people posing with Kurt because it's so hard to tell anything about anyone from a stupid online picture. Blaine can't tell which ones are from his dorm and which are only classmates. He can't tell which ones Kurt's told him about, he can't tell which ones are gay, and he definitely can't tell which ones are crushing hard on his boyfriend, though he's able to make some guesses. On the days that Blaine spends a little too much time analyzing the pictures, he tries to steel himself for the day that he gets the call from Kurt saying, _Blaine, I'm in love with someone else._ It makes him incredibly queasy until someone knocks on his door to drag him down for dinner or until he heads out catch a movie with his roommate and then it's a little easier to focus on something else and he can forget to dwell on it.

The weeks go on and the phone calls get fewer. They both get irritated with how many unanswered phone calls they each make until they pretty much just stop trying to call.

For the most part, that's what happens: they just stop _trying._

It's the last Saturday of Christmas break before they head back to school. Blaine's been putting it off but he really really can't put it off anymore. They meet up at the Lima Bean and Kurt messes around with his coffee cup lid, not meeting Blaine's eyes. They both know what's going on here.

"Kurt," he says quietly.

"I know," he says back. "You don't have to say it; I already know."

And Blaine just stares at him. "You're not going to try to talk me out of it?"

"What? No, of course not. It's not _working_ , Blaine. You know it and I know it and we both knew it was only a matter of time before we dealt with it."

"Yeah," Blaine agrees. He's not sure why but it stings that Kurt's agreeing with him so quickly and so wholeheartedly. It means that Kurt's already thought about it and it just _stings._

"We're friends, though," he tells Blaine, sliding his hand over the table to place it on top of Blaine's. "Before everything else and after all's said and done, we're friends."

And that's what it comes down to, Blaine thinks. Their first semester at college and it feels like they're only friends most of the time; it's not anything like how it was those first few weeks. Hell, they barely even saw each other over Christmas break and Blaine just knows that it's not supposed to be like that.

"I know," he says. "We're friends. I know that." And he does. Because when this whole thing started nagging at him, he never ever doubted for even a moment that he'd be losing a friend out of the ordeal.

They sit in silence and enjoy what's probably their last time drinking coffee together as a couple. They smile at each other when they're ready to leave and Blaine says, "I love you," because it's the last time he'll be able to and because it's true. He already knows that 'not dating Kurt' is definitely not synonymous with 'not loving Kurt'.

So they head their separate ways and a few days later, Blaine stares out the window as he drives back to campus and thinks about how he'll have to change his Facebook status to single and how already he hates that he won't be able to say things like "my boyfriend Kurt" anymore.

When he gets back to his dorm room, he lies on his bed without even taking his shoes off and stares at his ceiling. He pulls out his phone to text Kurt but stops himself because they decided to give it a couple of weeks to hopefully make the transition a little smoother from 'together' to 'just friends'.

Truth be told, he has absolutely no idea how to do that and he's not even sure how to broach the subject with Kurt because it's not like there's a user guide out there titled How to be Best Friends With Your Ex. The last time they were just friends was years ago before Blaine ever consciously thought of the possibility of being in love with Kurt and most definitely before _actually_ being in love with Kurt.

He's only back at school for two weeks before he realizes how weird their situation is. Objectively, he knows that they broke up because it wasn't practical; they barely had time to talk or text because they were so busy meeting new people and trying new things and seeing new places. After only two weeks, though, Blaine realizes that he has to force himself not to text Kurt at all hours of the day. Everyday he thinks of at least three things he wants to tell Kurt and he has his phone out before he remembers that he's not supposed to do that anymore. For the life of him, Blaine can't figure out what changed. They didn't have time for each other and now that they're not in a relationship, Blaine has all kinds of time and so much of it is spent thinking about Kurt. It doesn't make any sense.

So two weeks in, Blaine makes the first move. He pulls out his phone before his Friday morning Ab Psych class and sends a text: _Have you seen the new Channing Tatum movie yet?_

He waits less than three minutes for a response: _If you watch it on mute, it's not half bad._

Blaine stares at his phone for two minutes and wills himself to stop smiling.

He tries to monitor how many texts he sends and how often he sends them because if there _was_ a manual titled How to be Best Friends With Your Ex, Blaine's pretty sure 'Don't be a clingy nutcase' would be chapter one. Within the span of two months, he's gone from not having enough time to send even a single daily text to his long-distance boyfriend to suddenly trying to prevent himself from sending numerous daily texts to his long-distance ex-boyfriend.

Next Friday, he sends another text: _It's seventy degrees in Lima today. In January. How is that even possible?_

_It's always either a blizzard or a heat wave_ , Kurt texts back. _I think Ohio might be bipolar._

Blaine lets out a small laugh and it's the very first time he thinks, So wait ... why didn't this work out again?

It's a quick thought with not much substance but Blaine knows that he's planted the seed and it's only a matter of time until he's thinking about it more often and with a lot more intensity.

They start to text almost daily and Blaine steadfastly refuses to analyze it.

::

Mid February, Blaine has a date with Robbie, the only other guy in his Ab Psych study group. He's relatively unenthused but he figures it's normal to feel weird about the first date after dating someone else for almost two years. Robbie's blond and tall with a borderline-awkward buzz cut and Blaine can practically hear Kurt calling it _unfortunate_ with his voice fully of judgey disdain. Blaine doesn't really think that Robbie's his type but he's only ever had one boyfriend so he's not sure what the basis is for that assessment.

They walk to a cheap Italian place a few blocks away and Blaine's surprised at how stilted their conversation is. He assumed it would go pretty smoothly (albeit uneventfully) since they seem to get along so well during the study group but when they reach the restaurant after three minutes of absolute silence, Blaine realizes that the six girls in their study group probably added a lot more to their conversations than he initially gave them credit for. Dinner is awkward and a little boring so unsurprisingly, Blaine finds his mind occasionally wandering. He thinks about Breadstix and how their baked ziti is pretty much a million times better than the one he ordered. He thinks about the first date that he and Kurt had and then thinks about the first time they went to the Lima Bean as more than just friends. He thinks about how overrated it is to be just friends with your high school sweetheart when it would be so much better to be so much more.

He snaps back to the conversation because yeah, daydreaming about your ex is totally not proper etiquette for a first date and more importantly, it's probably chapter two in the How To manual.

Halfway through the meal, Robbie's phone rings and he apologizes for not turning the volume off. He glances at the caller ID and his forehead crinkles in confusion. "Hey, it's my mom. Do you care if I take this? She never calls me."

"Oh sure, sure," Blaine tells him. "No problem."

Robbie heads outside to take the call and he turns to smile and wave to Blaine through the front windows; Blaine gives a small perfunctory smile in return. As soon as Robbie's back is turned, Blaine has his cell phone out before he even registers he's doing it and hits speed dial 2. It only rings twice before he picks up.

"Hello?" Kurt answers. He sounds surprised.

He hasn't heard Kurt's voice in almost a month and he knows he should say something normal like, _Hey how are you_? Or even, _Haven't talked in a while so I thought I'd call to catch up_. He doesn't say those things, though. What he does say is:

"This guy is so boring. How did I not know this before?"

Kurt doesn't say anything for a minute. "What? What guy?"

"Robbie," Blaine says. "From my study group."

Kurt's quiet again. "You have a study group at nine p.m. on a Friday? That's ... dedication."

"No," Blaine tells him. "We're at dinner together." And Blaine suddenly realizes that telling your ex about the date you're on is probably way tacky.

Kurt doesn't say anything for a long time and Blaine tries to come up with the words to apologize because really, how did he not know how offensive this would be to Kurt?

But then Kurt's laughing right in his ear. "Oh my _god_ , Blaine. Are you calling me while you're on a date?"

Blaine blinks. "Uh."

"Oh my god, you _are_. This is priceless."

"He's outside," Blaine offers him as an explanation.

"He's outside," Kurt repeats with a sigh. "'He's _outside_.' Only you, Blaine."

"What?" he asks defensively. "He's on the phone, too."

"With his ex-boyfriend?" He sounds skeptical.

Blaine thinks it over. "Okay, no, with his mom, but still."

Kurt laughs quietly. "You're seriously justifying this to yourself. It's unreal."

He knows he should be annoyed that Kurt's laughing at him but he's not because Kurt's _laughing_ and it's the best sound Blaine's heard all month.

"Whatever," is Blaine's very eloquent response.

"Are you pouting now?" Kurt laughs. "You're nineteen and pouting. I can't imagine how much fun your date must be having. What a lucky guy."

Blaine grins and thinks it might be the first time he's smiled the whole night.

"Shit, he's coming back in," Blaine whispers. And before he can think better of it, he adds, "I'll call you back later."

He ends the call and pockets his phone as discreetly as possible before Robbie makes his way back over.

"I'm so sorry," he says as he takes his seat. "It's so rude to take a call on a date, I know that."

Blaine waits for the guilt to sink in since he just called his ex-boyfriend while on a first date, which he now realizes is beyond ridiculous and so much worse than answering a call from a family member, but the guilt never comes. In actuality, he's still thinking about Kurt's laugh and how he's aching to hear it again.

"Everything okay?" he asks, partially because he knows he should.

"Oh fine," Robbie answers with a dismissive wave. "Sorry again."

Blaine smiles at him in response.

The rest of the date drags on. Robbie doesn't try to hold his hand on the walk back and doesn't lean in for a kiss when they reach Blaine's dorm. Instead he offers a small wave and tells him he'll see him in class on Wednesday. He doesn't seem disappointed or even surprised.

Blaine calls Kurt as soon as he steps out of the elevator onto his floor and when Kurt answers, he's laughing.

::

A week later, he's in his dorm writing an essay on Shakespearean villains when his phone buzzes with a text from Kurt. _Who takes a date to foreign film_?

Blaine smiles. _Is that rhetorical or an actual question_? he sends back.

_He suggested a foreign film, Blaine. I'm drowning in a sea of pretentiousness._

Blaine cocks his head and wonders why he doesn't feel even remotely jealous. He always assumed that the last thing he'd ever want to do is hear about Kurt dating again but for some reason, he doesn't mind. It's a little weird, he supposes, but it's not miserable.

_Oh my god, Kurt. Are you texting me while you're on a date_? he sends. And when three minutes goes by without a response, he sends another: _Oh my god you ARE. This is priceless._

_Touche_ , Kurt sends. _That was deserved._

Kurt calls him a little over an hour later. Blaine's laughing when he answers the phone.

::

The next time Blaine gets a text from Kurt on a Friday night, all it says is _can you pls call me 5 min._

Blaine's stomach sort of ties up because Kurt's pretty hardcore about his texts being grammatically correct; un-capitalized and shorthand means something's up. He only waits three minutes.

"Hello?" he answers.

"Hey," Blaine says, trying not to sound freaked out. "Are you okay?"

"What's going on?" He sounds startled.

"What?" Blaine asks. "You told me to call you, remember?"

Kurt doesn't say anything for a while.

"Kurt?" Blaine prompts.

After a few seconds, Kurt makes a weird noise and says, "Oh no, is he okay?"

Blaine's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "What? Who's 'he'? Are _you_ okay?"

"No, no, it's fine, don't worry about it. Should I leave right now?"

He swallows. "I have no idea what's going on, Kurt. You're kind of freaking me out."

"No, it's really okay. I'm on a date but I'm sure we can just reschedule."

He blinks and then laughs hard. "Kurt, no. Are you seriously faking a hospital call to get out of a date? Just, no."

"Sure, I'll meet you there in twenty minutes," he says.

"That is low, Kurt," he laughs. "I feel so cheap, so used."

"What room number?"

"I want no part in this," Blaine tells him, still grinning. "You're awful and probably leaving this guy devastated and heartbroken."

"Okay," Kurt says. "I'll call you when I'm on my way."

Blaine stares at his phone with a smile when the call ends. He waits for Kurt to call.

Seven minutes later it rings and he answers saying, "You can't be serious, Kurt. That has to be something straight out of a Hugh Grant movie. I can't believe you went there."

"What?" he asks defensively. "You don't even know how bad that was."

"What happened to that kid I knew in high school?" Blaine asks with a laugh. "The bravest boy I ever knew. You're telling me he can't even man up to end one lousy date?"

Kurt sighs and Blaine can picture him perfectly, eyebrow raised and looking so put upon. "Blaine, I'm telling you that there was no other way. This guy puts Brittany to shame. I don't even think he should legally be allowed to drive. I'm not convinced that he can read basic street signs."

Blaine bites his lip to keep from laughing again. They talk for another hour.

Later, his roommate asks him how it is that he never gets jealous. "I'd be freaked as hell if I was still in love with my ex-girlfriend and she was calling me while on dates with other guys," Joel says.

Blaine doesn't comment on Joel's astute observation that Blaine's still in love with his ex-boyfriend. He also doesn't say that no, he's not jealous but yes, he probably will be as soon as Kurt _stops_ calling him while on dates with other guys.

There's a two week difference between their spring breaks so they don't see each other but the texts don't stop and neither do the calls. It's hard to justify the calls to himself since they're not just doing it while on dates anymore but Blaine tries to justify it nevertheless.

In mid-March, Blaine starts a countdown until Kurt's summer break begins but can't really find a way to justify _that_.

That's how it goes until the end of the semester.

::

Kurt's back in Lima for summer break on a Friday; Blaine drives home two days before. He's restless and wired and his mom finally calls him on it Thursday night.

"Good Lord, Blaine, calm down. You're high-strung and it's putting my teeth on edge."

"Sorry," he says from his spot on the couch, leg bouncing.

"Do something. Go to a movie. Read a book. Call Wes," she says. And then, with a knowing look: "Make a trip over to Lima, maybe."

He doesn't say anything for a minute. "He's not back until tomorrow."

"I know," she says with an eye roll. "You've maybe mentioned it a few times now."

"Sorry," he says again.

His mom sighs. "You don't need to apologize. You just need to stop fidgeting. And hold off on any more coffee."

Blaine's wide awake by the time he makes his way to bed but he knows he needs to get at least a few hours of sleep to regroup before seeing Kurt's family for the first time in months and, more importantly, before seeing _Kurt_ for the first time in months. Even though Kurt doesn't get in until three, Blaine leaves early in the morning and ends up driving around aimlessly for about an hour when he reaches Lima. He stops by the Lima Bean for the hell of it, or maybe for old time's sake, he's not sure. He drinks two medium drips (because god knows he needs more caffeine) before he heads over to the Hummel house.

Carole answers the door and she doesn't look surprised to see him standing there. She pulls him into a tight hug and Blaine lets out a small sigh of relief. He knows that losing the family is always a side effect of a nasty break up and Blaine's so so grateful that they didn't have a nasty break up. For more than one reason, obviously, but keeping Kurt's family is a good reason nevertheless.

"Oh, honey," she says, still holding tight. "He doesn't get in until three."

She pulls back to give Blaine a considering look. "But why do I get the feeling that you already knew that?"

He shrugs and gives her an embarrassed smile. "I wasn't doing anything else today anyway."

"Hmm," she says knowingly. "Well, come on in. Are you hungry?"

He shakes his head. "No, I'm okay. I had way too much coffee this morning so my stomach's kind of ..." Blaine trails off because blaming the coffee for the way his stomach's been feeling is kind of a cop-out.

They're still en route to the kitchen when Carole stops abruptly in the hallway, face suddenly serious. "It's okay that you're nervous, Blaine. I know he's anxious to see you, too."

He's quiet, not sure what to say.

"You two are close," she continues. "And the two of you are in unfamiliar territory. It's normal to feel, well, exactly how you're feeling."

He swallows. "Okay," he says for lack of anything else. So apparently Kurt's anxious; Blaine wonders what the hell that's supposed to mean. She's right, Blaine knows, when she says that they're sort of in uncharted waters. He's in love with his ex-boyfriend who's also his first boyfriend and his only boyfriend and his high school sweetheart and his best friend and maybe sometimes even his everything, or at least it feels like it. It's too much, standing in the hallway with Carole staring at him, to feel all at once.

She gently pushes him down the hall and thankfully, the moment's over and Blaine can breathe normally again. Burt's standing in the kitchen when he walks in and they smile at each other.

"Hey there," Burt says as he makes his way around the island. He claps Blaine on the shoulder as a hello and doesn't seem remotely surprised to see him either. "How've you been?"

"Good," Blaine says with a shrug. "I'm ready for summer break, though. I could use a breather."

"Sure, sure," Burt agrees. "With how hard you boys study, you deserve some time off."

He grabs his glass of water from the counter and nods his head towards the living room. "Come on," he tells Blaine. "Reds against the Cubs. Game just started."

Blaine blinks back his surprise. It feels like nothing's changed, like he's back in his senior year and spending Sundays with Kurt's family. "Oh," is all he can think of as a reply.

Burt gives him a subtle once over. "Come on," he repeats. "It'll help you pass the time."

Blaine follows him with a nod and takes his spot on the couch. They watch the game together and the conversation is easy and comfortable, just like it always was.

It makes his stomach feel even worse.

Then he hears the back door open during the eighth inning and suddenly, there are voices in the hallway and Blaine's stomach lurches.

"I will literally pay you to wash you car," Kurt is saying. "I will give you twenty dollars right now if you promise to go directly to the car wash, no detours whatsoever."

"Dude, calm down," Blaine hears Finn answer. "I washed it not that long ago."

He hears Kurt makes a disgusted noise and his voice gets louder as he gets closer. "When?" Kurt asks. " _Last_ summer?"

It's quiet then as Finn ignores the question. Suddenly Blaine realizes that he has his fists clenched by his side and somehow he stood up without realizing it and good god, his heartbeat seems way too fast to be normal and he wonders if that's normal and then he thinks about the fact that Kurt is _right there_ on the other side of the wall and he wills himself to just breathe because his brain is firing off in too many directions and he doesn't want it to short circuit before he even says hello to Kurt and --.

He takes a deep breath.

"Honestly, Finn, it's disgusting. I don't know how you're okay with that. It's not acceptable to be driving around where people can actually _see_ you because --"

And then Kurt rounds the corner and freezes when he sees Blaine standing in front of the couch, staring at him. Kurt stares back and blinks.

"Blaine," he says and it sounds more like an exhale than anything else. He rushes at Blaine and throws his arms around him and just ... clings. They stand like that for a while, Blaine's not even sure how long. They're in the middle of the living room, clutching at each other and not saying a word, until Burt clears his throat.

"Welcome home, kid," he says. "Before you two head off to wherever it is you're going, why don't you say hello to everyone else first?" Burt's tone is light but it's obvious he's a little awkward for intruding on a personal moment and Blaine can't help but to grin at the familiarity of it all.

Kurt untangles himself and when he pulls back, Blaine's relieved to see that he's not alone because Kurt's eyes are a little wet, too. He gives Blaine one last glance before he makes his way over to his dad and Carole to be welcomed home officially. As he watches them, Blaine feels like he should be a little awkward for watching their personal moment but Finn throws an arm around his shoulders and tosses a casual _hey_ his way and suddenly he doesn't feel like he's intruding at all.

"Are you two staying for dinner?" Carole asks Kurt, still hugging him tightly.

"I don't know," Kurt answers as he glances at Blaine. "This is kind of unexpected."

"I'm sorry," Blaine apologizes. "I just ... wanted to see you." It sounds lame and weird and a million other things as it's coming out of his mouth and he cringes slightly.

"No, you don't have to apologize," Kurt says quickly as Carole lets him out of the hug. "It's -- I was surprised, that's all. A good surprise, I promise."

Blaine offers him a shy smile and feels so pathetic because when the hell did Blaine start to feel shy around Kurt? It's like he's thirteen all over again, so awkward and unsure of himself, and it's a little disconcerting.

Blaine doesn't realize that they're just staring at each other from across the living room until Finn clears his throat and says something incredibly un-smooth to clear out the room. Blaine's vaguely aware of the sound still coming out of the TV as he hears Burt and Carole follow Finn out of the living room.

And then they're alone.

Kurt walks over to Blaine slowly until they're standing close, only a few inches between them, and breaks the silence first. "I have missed you so much," he tells Blaine.

Blaine nods and swallows and realizes that he's staring at Kurt's mouth.

He finally looks up to see Kurt's wide eyes and pink cheeks and all Blaine can feel is relief at the realization that he can still make Kurt feel like that, can still make him blush, can still make his heart beat a little faster.

"Me too," Blaine agrees finally. "So much."

Kurt's quiet for a few moments. "Let's go somewhere," he suggests.

"Where?"

"Anywhere," Kurt says. "I don't care where."

Blaine smiles at him, still very aware that there's only a few inches between them, and knows it would be just so easy to lean in and close the gap.

"Blaine," Kurt whispers, like maybe he knows exactly what Blaine's thinking.

Blaine takes a step back then, unsure if Kurt's warning him or trying to dissuade him from having any of the crazy thoughts that he's absolutely feeling. It feels like a preemptive rejection so Blaine lowers his eyes and smiles at the ground.

When he looks up again, he sees Kurt tilting his head and giving Blaine a considering look.

Kurt grabs his hand and pulls him towards the hallway to make their way to the door. "We're heading out," he calls as he reaches the front door. "We'll be back later."

And then they're out the front door and Blaine's laughing as Kurt pulls him along. "Don't you want to visit with your family?" he asks as they head towards the driveway.

"Sure," Kurt says with a shrug. "But I'll see them all summer and right now, I want to see you."

"If you want, you can see me all summer, too," Blaine tells him before he can censor himself.

Kurt looks at him and tilts his head again. "Okay."

::

They sit in the parking lot of the nearest ice cream parlor. It's awkward and tense because the whole situation is kind of surreal and brand-new. Blaine thinks about how he has no idea how to act around Kurt because they've never been alone in a car like this, not since they've been broken up, and he wonders if the Ex-Boyfriend How To manual has tips on how to do all of the things that couples used to do once they're not a couple anymore. Because all of the things that he and Kurt did when they were alone in a car, well, they can't do any of those things anymore.

He clears his throat and wonders if this is what it's going to be like the entire summer, if they're going to have to learn each other all over again. Everything's different and Blaine can't help but feel that he'll spend the summer trying to figure out how to be just friends with Kurt, which sucks so hard because it's not really a skill he wants to learn.

So he's thinking all of these things and feeling a little sorry for himself and feeling a lot nervous for the two of them about all the changes that they'll have to make when he realizes Kurt's staring at him.

"New car?" Kurt asks. "I didn't recognize it when Finn pulled up to the house."

"My mom's," Blaine answers. "She traded in the Honda." And good god, it _is_ going to be like this all summer, he realizes. He's going to be tense and fidgety because he doesn't remember how to be just friends with Kurt anymore. Their friendship is the foundation of everything they have, Blaine knows that, but it's only the _foundation_. They built so much more on top of it and now that the rest of it's gone, it feels like a huge gaping hole. It was so much easier when they were miles apart talking over the phone because now that he's a few feet away, Blaine can barely focus.

"I loved that Honda," Kurt says with a wistful smile.

Blaine raises an eyebrow.

"Well, I loved the memories," he clarifies. "I have a lot of memories of the back seat of that Honda."

Blaine's eyes widen because yeah, he totally thought that talking about making out in a car was one of those taboo subjects after a couple breaks up. And before he can think of anything else, Kurt's leaning over to grab Blaine's face and suddenly, Kurt's kissing him hard. Blaine's hand settles on Kurt's bicep before he can figure out what's going on and squeezes it tightly as he struggles to catch up. Kissing Kurt again is equal parts exactly like he remembered it and like some brand new experience he's desperate to learn and perfect. When they break apart, Blaine couldn't guess as to how much time has passed if he tried. He's dizzy and can't figure out what the _hell_ just happened.

"Oh my god," Kurt says, eyes wide. "I am so sorry."

"What?" Blaine tries to focus, tries to pull himself together. "Uh -- what was that?"

Kurt's hand flies up to cover his mouth and he just shakes his head. Blaine stares at him.

"I have no idea why I did that. I am so sorry," he repeats.

"What?" Blaine says again. "Why are you apologizing?"

"I -- what?"

They watch each other. They're both quiet and Blaine's not sure which one of them is supposed to break the silence so he lowers his eyes and stares at his hands. "You don't have to apologize," he tells him softly.

Kurt's still quiet but Blaine can't bring himself to meet his eyes.

"I don't?" He sounds absolutely, completely confused. "Silly me, I didn't know that fooling around in your mom's car was considered standard practice after the break-up."

Blaine looks up then and smiles at Kurt's sarcasm; it's one of those things that Blaine didn't realize exactly how much he would miss until it was gone.

"You're right," Blaine agrees after a few minutes. "It's probably not."

So they sit there in the back of the parking lot and stare out the front window.

"It's weird, right?" Blaine asks him.

"What's weird?"

He shrugs. "I can't think of the last time we sat in my mom's car and _didn't_ make out. I guess I don't know the correct protocol for this type of situation."

Kurt lets out a small laugh. "Proto -- oh my god, Blaine. Who says things like that?"

"What?" He sounds defensive but the question's out before he can censor it.

"Who says it with a straight face? With no irony at all?" Kurt asks, still laughing.

Blaine sighs. "Look, I'm just saying that it's a little weird, okay? In high school, we used to sit in parking lots and fool around in the back seat of my mom's car and really, it's ... it's a little weird."

Kurt's laugh dies quickly and his smile disappears. He stares at Blaine for a few seconds before he's leaning forward again and pressing his mouth against Blaine's.

And then just like high school, they're sitting in the parking lot and fooling around in the front seat of his mom's car and really, it's not weird at all.

::

He feels guilty on his drive home but only because his mom has some kind of sixth sense and she takes this car to _church_ and she'll know that Blaine has somehow tainted it already. He wonders if he should have waited until the car was a little less new.

He doesn't regret anything else, though.

::

Blaine's lying in bed later staring up at his ceiling and trying to stop himself from rehashing his entire day so that he can fall asleep.

Kurt calls around midnight and Blaine answers it embarrassingly quick. "Hello?"

"Hi," Kurt says. His voice is quiet so Blaine assumes that everyone else is asleep already. He and Kurt found out how thin those walls were back when they were in high school and they definitely found out the hard way.

"Hi," Blaine echoes. He can feel himself smiling wide and he knows he's definitely not falling asleep anytime soon.

"Hi," he says again. They're both quiet and then: "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"I don't know," Blaine answers. "Nothing."

Kurt hums in response. "Do you want to drive all the way back to Lima? We can get ice cream again."

And before Blaine can try to figure out if that's the new euphemism they're using, Kurt adds, "Carole wanted to invite you for dinner since they didn't get to see much of you yesterday."

Blaine swallows around the lump in his throat. "Sure," he agrees finally. "I can drive to Lima."

Kurt's quiet and Blaine wonders if he's lying in bed looking up at the ceiling, too.

"When can you be here?" he asks, voice still hushed.

"Early," Blaine says quietly. "I'll be there whenever you want." He figures that they only have a summer together so he should probably make it count.

::

He knows that Kurt usually wakes up around seven when given the chance to sleep in so Blaine's on the doorstep at seven fifteen.

They spend the entire day together: they meet up with Mike and Tina at an IHOP for breakfast (although Kurt has an orange juice and some toast which Blaine thinks hardly passes as a breakfast), they go to the mall for a couple of hours (and Blaine thinks they quite possibly go into every single store except for maybe the maternity wear one), they head to Breadstix for lunch (where Blaine finally gets to order his epic baked ziti), and they meet up with Mercedes at the Lima Bean to catch up (which really just involves Kurt and Mercedes excitedly firing questions and answers back and forth at each other while Blaine watches on and thinks about how _happy_ he is at that very moment). It's a good day and by the time they head back to Kurt's house, Blaine's feeling relaxed and easy.

Finn's girlfriend stops by to join them and judging by the overly polite conversation she has with Carole and Burt, Blaine thinks it might be a new relationship. They have dinner and then all pack into the living room to watch a movie. She and Finn sit close together on the couch and Blaine watches them long enough to see that Finn's pretty smitten. Halfway through the movie, Blaine heads to the kitchen for two bottles of water and hears her follow him in a few moments later.

"I'm Lydia," she says with a shy smile. "We didn't get an official introduction." She's cute and sweet and almost a little shy; Blaine likes her immediately. With her short light brown hair, bright green eyes, and soft unassuming voice, Blaine notes that she doesn't remind him of any girlfriend that Finn's ever had.

She holds out her hand and before he can think better of it, he moves in and gives her a light hug instead. "The Hummels are huggers," he tells her with a smile when he pulls away.

"Oh," she says, almost giggling. "Okay. Thanks for the tip. I know you've been doing this for longer than I have."

He shrugs and reaches into the fridge for two more bottles of water for her and Finn. "It'll be easy, I promise," he tells her. "If you're good to their kids, they make you part of the family in no time."

She smiles again. "He really likes you, you know."

"Who?" he asks, shutting the refrigerator before turning to face her again.

"Finn," she answers. "He talks about you a lot."

Blaine's not entirely sure how to reply because … what? "He does?"

"Mmhm. He talks about wanting you two getting back together which I always thought was a little weird but being here with everyone, I see what he means."

Blaine stares at her, still not entirely sure how to respond to a semi-stranger (albeit a sweet one) sort of telling him that he should get back together with his ex-boyfriend. But in her defense, Blaine thinks to himself, it's not like he and Kurt have been acting a whole lot like exes the past two days.

"It's this fascinating little family unit and you're _part_ of that," she continues. "It just looks really neat from the outside."

"Oh," Blaine says finally.

"He really thinks of Kurt as a brother, which I think is so cool, and I think he kind of thinks of you as his future brother-in-law."

Blaine blinks at her.

"Oh, I probably shouldn't have said that, right?" Lydia asks, eyes wide.

He doesn't say anything for a moment. "No, it's totally fine. I guess I sort of look at him the same way." As soon as he says it, Blaine realizes how strange that thought is. If he thinks that Finn's going to be his brother-in-law someday then logically, it looks like he's just biding time until he and Kurt inevitably get back together.

Maybe he _is_ just biding time. When Blaine takes a minute to think about it, it's suddenly easy to see why he wasn't unbearably miserable for more than a few weeks after the breakup and why he was never all that bothered by listening to Kurt talk about his dates every once in a while. Maybe deep down he _does_ think of their relationship as inevitable.

They head back to the living room to watch the rest of the movie. He settles back onto the loveseat with Kurt and wonders for the first time if they're sitting too close. Blaine glances over to see Burt watching them, looking like maybe he wants to ask a question but won't. And yeah, Blaine kind of knows that they _are_ sitting too close because even though he has zero experience with how the ex-boyfriend dynamic is supposed to work, he does know that quasi-snuggling on a couch is not part of that dynamic.

::

He's not sure when he falls asleep but he wakes up to Kurt gently trying to shove Blaine off of his shoulder. "Wake up," he's whispering.

He sits up and says, "I missed the end of the movie," because apparently that's the most important issue at hand right now.

Kurt rolls his eyes and shoves him a little less gently this time. "You've seen that movie like, thirty times, Blaine. The blue guys win and everyone else loses, the end."

Blaine ignores him and rubs at his eyes.

"Goodbye," he hears Lydia say. "It was nice meeting you two."

"It was a pleasure," Kurt tells her politely but all Blaine can do is lift his head and give her a weak smile and a tired wave.

He turns back to Blaine. "Do you just want to stay here?" he asks. "Text your mom."

Blaine nods his agreement and pulls out his phone.

"Blaine's going to just stay here," Kurt tells his dad. "That's okay, right?"

"Sure," Burt says. "We'll bring the blankets down."

Kurt answers with an annoyed sigh. "What? We're in college, Dad."

He looks at Kurt pointedly and doesn't say a word but Blaine can tell he's not going to budge an inch.

"And we're not even dating!" he says, throwing his arms up for emphasis.

Burt's still staring at him and then turns away to make his way upstairs to undoubtedly grab some blankets. "If it looks like a duck and it walks like a duck, then it's a duck, Kurt."

Those are the words that Blaine turns over and over in his head while he's lying on the couch, staring at the living room ceiling and trying to fall back asleep.

::

They get ice cream again on Sunday night but this time, they actually get out of the car and buy a cone that they sit on the bench outside to eat. They're sitting in silence and Blaine's once again thinking about how content he is in this very moment when he realizes that somehow he and Kurt have wordlessly switched cones and Blaine's currently holding Kurt's one scoop strawberry shortcake while Kurt's trying Blaine's two scoop peanut butter fudge.

"Mm, that's good," Kurt tells him, holding the cone out so they can switch back.

Blaine's frozen and Kurt tilts his head to give him a confused look. "What?"

He takes it from Kurt's outstretched hand and as he's holding both ice cream cones, Blaine makes a decision because pretending it's not an issue doesn't mean it stops being an issue. He's put it off long enough.

"We need to talk about this," he says finally as he passes the sugar cone back to Kurt.

Kurt doesn't bother playing stupid. "No, we don't."

"Kurt," he says with an exasperated sigh. "We have to talk about it sometime."

"Okay," he replies. "But it doesn't have to be today."

They finish their cones and somehow still end up getting handsy and half-naked in the back seat of his mom's car because apparently pretending it's not an issue means it stops being an issue right _now_. And Blaine supposes that that's enough.

During his drive home, his mind keeps reciting trite platitudes, mostly ones about not knowing what he has until it's gone. He thinks that maybe they both assumed 'just friends' would be good enough but now that everything they used to be is dangling in front of their faces again, they're starting to remember that no, it's _not_ enough. Blaine knows that even in high school, 'just friends' was never enough for them and really, maybe it just never would be.

::

He spends the next week agonizing over it. Blaine's agreed to help his dad for a few weeks and re-organize the files at his office. It's easy work if not mundane and kind of mind-numbing so he doesn't really have to focus on much. He spends eight hours a day sitting alone in a large room with thousands of file folders labeled with green stickers that he has to peel off and replace with blue stickers - all of which translates into him spending eight hours a day _thinking._

Kurt's a pro at putting things on the back burner, mostly things that he doesn't want to deal with, which means Blaine's going to spend the entire summer wondering where they stand and what it all means. He's pretty sure it's just one of those summer things that kids back from their first year of college do but he can't push down that irritating voice that keeps questioning if maybe it's _not_ just a summer thing.

Truth be told, it's the first time that he's been relieved at Kurt's ability to steadfastly ignore any issue that really can't be ignored. It's starting to become glaringly obvious to Blaine that he's done with it, done with the whole break-up and everything that comes along with it. He needs to sit down with Kurt and get it all out there, needs to be honest and simply straight-up tell him that given the choice between boyfriend and ex-boyfriend, Blaine definitely has a preference as to which one he'd like to be.

So he sits amidst stacks of file folders and tries to be rational about it but the problem is and the problem has _always_ been that when it comes to Kurt, Blaine sometimes forgets how to be rational. Because having that conversation and telling Kurt exactly what he wants means that he can easily just tell Blaine _no_. Kurt had his reasons to go along with the break-up, too; it's not like this whole thing was one-sided and Kurt's simply been waiting for Blaine to take him back. And Blaine really can't deal with that kind of overt rejection, not from Kurt.

He's not bold like Kurt is, he's not quite as good as putting himself out there and laying everything on the line. He's not emotionally prepared to hear Kurt tell him that he's not ready to get back together, that he still wants to date around and experience life a little. He doesn't want to find out that maybe Kurt doesn't think of them as inevitable as Blaine does.

So he's relieved. Kurt refuses to bring it up and Blaine's not ready to bring it up so he steels himself for a summer of blatant avoidance.

::

Thankfully, a summer of blatant avoidance turns into only a week of blatant avoidance. They don't see each other that week in between Blaine's hours at his dad's office and the time Kurt's been putting in at the garage while a couple of guys are on vacation.

"When can you meet up?" Kurt asks him over the phone on Tuesday. "I'm not working Friday morning."

"Can't," Blaine answers. "I'm going in with Dad for another couple of weeks. Saturday?"

"No," Kurt says, sounding tired and maybe frustrated. "I took the Saturday shift this week. Sunday?"

Blaine inwardly groans because it's not supposed to be this difficult. It's _summer_. "It's my grandma's birthday and everyone's going over there for a party. My dad took Monday off, though. Monday?"

Kurt's quiet and then: "Monday totally works for me."

Suddenly Blaine's nervous and shy all over again and before he can figure out why the hell that keeps happening, he says, "Okay, Monday. We'll get ice cream."

Kurt laughs softly. "Monday. Ice cream." And either Blaine's making it up in his head or Kurt sounds a little breathless.

And so he waits. Though he won't know it until later, he's _been_ waiting for it ever since that terribly depressing Saturday morning conversation in the back of a coffee shop.

:::

**Monday:**

And finally, it's Monday.

"We need to talk about this," Kurt says almost immediately after Blaine parks the car in the back of the parking lot.

"Uh, what?" Blaine asks, eyebrows raised. Because there's no way that 'talk about _this_ ' means 'talk about _us_ ', not with Kurt's track record of dodging things he's not willing to acknowledge.

"I understand completely if this is only a summer fling for you. It makes sense and honestly, it has to be a pretty common occurrence among most couples during the first summer back, right?"

Kurt waits for him to answer but Blaine's quiet. He's watching Kurt, taking in his determined face and his shaking hands, and for a minute he's speechless at how much stronger Kurt is, stronger than Blaine will probably ever be. He's too terrified of rejection to start this conversation but he doesn't even need to because once again, Kurt's putting it all out there with feigned ease.

"So that's fine if that's what this is," Kurt continues, and Blaine can clearly tell that he's lying through his teeth. "But if this is just a summer fling then I deserve to know that."

Blaine shifts in his seat so he can look at Kurt better. "If it's not a summer fling then what is it?"

He sighs. "I don't know."

"Are you saying you want to get back together?" He realizes he's kind of holding his breath.

Kurt looks at his hands and after a minute, Blaine wonders if he's even going to answer.

"I've sabotaged every date I've been on this semester, Blaine. All seven of them. At first I thought it was because I wasn't ready to date someone new, and then I thought it was because it was so strange dating someone new, and then it just turned into me trying to find something wrong with all of them until I realized that it wasn't me and it wasn't them. It's you."

"It was me? I sabotaged your dates?" Blaine hopes he's missing the point because that's not exactly something he wants Kurt accusing him of.

"No," he says emphatically, finally looking up to meet Blaine's eyes. "I mean that it's _you_. I just know I'm going to keep sabotaging them until I know, until I really really know, that you and I can't make it work."

He watches Blaine who stays silent yet again.

"So I know we're supposed to be sowing our wild oats or whatever. I've seen what's out there, I've been single for half a year now, and I've been really good about sticking by this break-up even when I thought it was the dumbest idea ever, which was pretty much every other day, by the way. To really truly move on, though, I need to know that we can't make it work."

Blaine swallows.

"So do you?" Kurt asks. "Want to make it work, I mean?"

"Yes," Blaine says immediately. " _Yes_."

::

With one word, it's all over.

There's no more worrying about spending the whole summer relearning how to be just a friend. There's no more anxiety about spending an entire summer being Kurt's friend with benefits. Most importantly, there's no more of this ex-boyfriend business; that's all over now.

It's a rainy Monday in the front seat of a Toyota and he and Kurt are finally, finally not over.

:::

**Wednesday:**

Their sophomore year isn't exceptionally bad but Wednesdays are hard.

Blaine is in class all day and his Bio lab doesn't end until ten thirty at night. He passes the library on his way back to the dorm and if he doesn't finish the lab report on Wednesday night then it won't get done in time for his Bio class on Friday morning. He can't get much done at the dorms because his roommate has a new girl in their room like, almost every night and, though it wasn't indicated in the school's brochure, the fourth floor seems to be the designated party floor this year. Blaine knows it's obviously a random assignment but when he's feeling particularly irritable, he blames the universe for coincidentally grouping all of the drinkers onto one floor and then magically grouping Blaine in with them.

Which is why Blaine finds himself at the library until midnight on Wednesdays as it's the only place conducive to studying and completing his insanely difficult lab report before class. It's why Blaine finds himself at the library _most_ nights, really, that and the perpetual sock on the doorknob to his dorm room. Blaine has no idea when and if his roommate actually goes to class.

Meanwhile, Kurt's got a class at seven on Thursday mornings at the opposite end of campus from his dorm room so he usually makes Wednesdays an early night. He tries to stay up until Blaine calls on his way out of the library but it doesn't always work.

Blaine knows they both look kind of lame to their respective classmates but he doesn't give it much thought anymore. Every experience was a new experience during their freshman year; even the school cafeterias were exciting then. It was brand new and fresh and kind of glamorous and now, well, now it's just school and classes and exams. Blaine doesn't have any desire to go to every social event that his dorm arranges or to go to any of the functions the student union puts on. Really, he just has the desire to talk to his boyfriend once in a damn while.

And unfortunately, Kurt's in pretty much the same predicament but ended up with a floor full of stoners, not so much the drinkers.

So it's a little over halfway through the second semester on a Wednesday and Blaine's booking it out of the library. His cell phone tells him it's five minutes after midnight and he hits his speed dial two as quickly as possible.

"Hello?" Kurt answers and Blaine berates himself for not finishing his assignment just a little quicker because it sounds like he woke Kurt up.

"Hey, did I wake you?"

"No," Kurt says and Blaine can hear rustling in the background.

"Are you sure?"

"I was just getting ready for bed," he lies.

Blaine laughs. "Kurt, I can hear you messing around with your blankets. You're a terrible liar."

"Okay," Kurt says but it comes out like more of a mumble.

Blaine can't help but to smile at his voice when he's this tired. It's kind of adorable and he reminds himself that someday, he'll eventually get to hear it every night. In person.

"Go back to bed," Blaine says quietly. "I love you."

He says something relatively incoherent in response and then the call ends. Blaine smiles all the way back to his dorm.

::

Kurt's slightly more awake the Wednesday after that.

"Ugh," he groans as he answers the phone. "I don't know what's wrong with these people."

"Yeah, hi to you, too," Blaine laughs.

"Sorry, hi," he says. "How was class?"

Blaine shrugs even though Kurt can't see him. "Fine. Your day was a little more exciting than mine from the sounds of it."

"I just don't know why some of these people decided to go to college. Their parents are shelling out thousands and thousands of dollars only for their kids to end up in a drug-induced stupor every night. That can't be financially practical."

Blaine hums in agreement. "I know. I feel like someone should write a strongly worded letter to their parents and tell them, in detail, how and why their children will end up in rehab."

Kurt's silent for a minute and Blaine wonders if he's already fallen asleep. "We should _follow_ these people," he tells Blaine in a hushed whisper. "Like, in ten years see how many of your classmates end up at a Betty Ford clinic and see how many of mine have become drug dealing pimps."

Blaine laughs. "Okay."

"No, Blaine, I seriously think this is a fantastic idea. It should eventually be my senior thesis."

"Okay, you need to go to bed," Blaine tells him. "Because that is _not_ a fantastic idea. The senior thesis part, I mean. We can still wager on the rehab and pimps thing."

Kurt sighs and Blaine can tell he's on the verge of sleep.

"Go to bed," Blaine says to him, just like he says pretty much every Wednesday. "I love you."

::

The next Wednesday, Kurt answers the phone after the first ring and says, "Well hello."

"Well, hello to you, too," Blaine says with a grin. "Someone's in a good mood."

"Yes," he replies. "Yes, I am."

"Okay," he laughs. "Why?"

"I don't know," he answers. "Just nice to talk to you."

Blaine hums in response. "So Finn called me," he tells Kurt.

"Really."

"Really. He wants to meet up for a Buckeyes game."

Kurt doesn't say anything for a few moments. "Well, that's nice." His voice sounds off.

"It is. You okay?"

"Just jealous, I suppose."

Blaine doesn't ask if he's jealous because his brother gets to hang out with his boyfriend while Kurt's hundreds of miles away or if he's jealous because Kurt's family treats Blaine like he's already a son-in-law and a brother-in-law since it might not be something Kurt will ever get. He assumes it's probably a little of both.

But then the moment's gone because Kurt says, "I hope you two have fun," and it's completely genuine.

"We will, I'm sure," he says. Blaine's not a huge fan of basketball but whatever, he won't turn down social interaction with someone that's not halfway to becoming an alcoholic.

"Do you think you two would have been friends if you didn't know me?" Kurt asks, kind of out of nowhere.

Blaine laughs. "Like, do I think we would have hung out after school or something? No."

"Really?" he asks, sounding surprised.

"Really. Look, we get along great and I think Finn likes me plenty, don't get me wrong," Blaine tells him. "But I also think that part of that is because I'm in love with his brother."

He hums his agreement. "And because his brother loves you back."

"Yes," Blaine agrees. "I think that weighs into it, too."

Kurt yawns. "Have fun at the game."

"Go to bed," Blaine replies. "I love you."

::

The Wednesday after that, Kurt doesn't answer.

Blaine sighs sadly because for some reason, he likes to talk to Kurt before he goes to bed at night. He's not sure he could ever explain why but it puts him at ease and, even though it's probably not true, he thinks he has better dreams if Kurt's the last voice he hears at night.

He heads back to his dorm, mentally counting down until spring break, and gets a text at seven in the morning from Kurt: _Apparently my phone was on silent, sorry._

Blaine wakes up around nine and says, _No problem. Only six weeks left!_

_Don't forget spring break,_ Kurt sends him. _So that's only five more Wednesdays._

::

The following Wednesday, Kurt's still up but he sounds stressed. "I didn't finish that paper about cinema in the fifties. God I can't _believe_ I didn't finish this paper."

"Hey, it's okay," Blaine says, trying to sound soothing. He knows what it's like to be intense over an impending paper or an early morning exam, though, so he doesn't say much else.

They talk until he reaches his dorm room and Kurt sighs. "Thanks for letting me vent."

"Of course," Blaine replies. "It's what I'm here for."

"Okay," he says with another sigh. "Go to bed. I love you."

::

Blaine doesn't leave the library until after twelve thirty on the first Wednesday after spring break. He's almost positive Kurt's asleep and that it's too late to call but he tries anyway. After their freshman year, well, they now know what's at stake if they stop trying.

::

Kurt's barely conscious the Wednesday after that.

"Hi," he says.

"Hi," Blaine says back.

"Someday I think I'm going to ask you to marry me," Kurt tells him and Blaine can hear the exhaustion in his voice.

"Well then someday I think I'm going to say yes," he replies quietly.

Kurt makes a soft noise that Blaine knows is his way of saying that he heard Blaine's answer but then a minute later, he's asleep.

"I love you," Blaine says, even though he's not awake to hear it.

::

Blaine stays the night at the Hummel house on the first Wednesday of summer break. Burt even lets him stay in Kurt's old room but he's pretty sure it's only because of Carole's persuasion.

They don't even stay up late; they're both too exhausted from late night studying and exams and travel to do much of anything.

"Go to bed," he hears Kurt say with a tired voice when Blaine burrows into his neck. "I love you."

:::

**Sunday:**

Burt and Carole leave for their long overdue and much deserved honeymoon on a Sunday. It's Christmas break of their junior year and Kurt calls almost immediately after they leave.

"You should come over," Kurt tells him over the phone. "We can pretend we're grownups and play house."

Blaine laughs. "Okay, I'm in."

He tells his mom he'll be gone for a few days and reminds her that the Hummel house phone number is still on their refrigerator, still under the same magnet it's been under for the past four years.

::

It's barely nine a.m. when Blaine pulls up to the Hummel house. "Okay, change of plans," Kurt tells him as he opens the front door.

"Oh?"

"Finn's here," he explains.

"Ah," Blaine says as he drops his bag at the foot of the stairs. "Can't really play house then, can we?"

"Well, it'll probably teach us how we'll raise a _child_ ," Kurt says under his breath and by the way he freezes, Blaine can tell he didn't mean to say it out loud. Blaine lets it go but smiles because he knows he's just going to bring it up later and really, he's not in any rush. They have a few days alone in the house and Blaine figures they have all the time in the world.

Instead, Blaine smiles and gently tugs on Kurt's sweater to try to pull him close. "Come here," he says.

Kurt glares at him. "If you pull this sweater, I swear to god, Blaine."

"Sorry," he says with a smile and reaches for his hand instead. "Come here."

Kurt's look fades into something softer and he lets Blaine pull him closer.

"Hey," Blaine whispers to Kurt's neck as he tugs him into a hug.

"Hi," he whispers back.

They're quiet for a while then Blaine asks, "So what's the plan for today?"

"No plans," Kurt answers. "Any ideas?"

Blaine thinks for a moment. "We could hang out and do nothing," he suggests.

Kurt pulls back to look at him. "Okay," he says slowly, sounding confused.

"We can sit around in old sweats and order pizza and watch movies."

He raises an eyebrow. "I don't own old sweats, Blaine. And also, gross."

"Come on, it'll be fun."

But Kurt still looks unimpressed. "You can wear whatever you want but some of us still like to look presentable even in the privacy of our own homes."

Blaine rests his forehead against Kurt's and softly says, "How about you wear some of my old sweats? I even have an extra t-shirt you can wear."

Kurt blinks but doesn't answer.

"Come on," Blaine persists. "It'll be fun. Kind of like a pajama party."

"Old sweatpants and t-shirts aren't pajamas, Blaine. I own _actual_ pajamas," he answers but Blaine can tell he's wearing him down.

"Come on," he says again.

Kurt swallows and looks like he doesn't know how to respond.

"I like the idea of you lounging around in my t-shirt," Blaine admits although he really, really didn't mean to say that out loud.

Kurt's breath hitches and he says, "Okay."

Blaine beams at him. "Good. Let's get comfortable and settle in for a day of doing nothing." He doesn't mean for his voice to come out deep and gravelly but it totally does.

Kurt nods.

Then Finn comes thundering down the stairs and gives Blaine a quick _hey_ before turning his attention on Kurt. "Okay, so I'm thinking we should have a party tonight. Everyone's probably back in town, right?"

"Everyone?" Kurt asks, eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, you know, everyone. Puck's still in town, I think. Quinn's back from school already, I'm pretty sure. I know Sam's back. I don't know about everyone else but we could still check, right?"

Kurt nods. "We could. Or."

"Or what?"

"Or you could invite Lydia over and the four of us could just stay in today and watch some movies or play cards or something."

Finn rolls his eyes. "What are you, thirty?"

"I'll buy you a pizza for lunch," Kurt adds. "Or two. Or however many it is that you normally eat in one sitting."

"Deal," Finn agrees quickly as he heads back upstairs.

Blaine gives Kurt an impressed look. "That wasn't hard at all. Well done."

He shrugs. "Comes from practice. The bribery technique is still a relatively new discovery and so far, highly effective."

"So we've added a movie and cards to the agenda, huh? Anything else you want to add?"

Kurt looks at Blaine with a teasing smile. "Oh, I've added more to the agenda. But Finn's not included in that part."

Blaine hums his approval. "Interesting."

And then Finn's rushing back down the stairs and the moment's kind of over.

"Okay, Lydia's on her way and she'll probably be here in like, an hour. Meat Lovers for me and Lydia's fine with plain cheese. And then whatever you guys want," he says as he tosses the cordless phone towards Kurt.

It catches Kurt off guard so Blaine has to reach out and grab it before it hits Kurt square in the face. Kurt flinches and turns towards Finn, who's wide-eyed and trying to apologize. "You are the worst brother ever," he hisses.

"I'm _sorry,_ " Finn says in reply. "Are you gonna be all mad for the rest of the day? Because that sounds awesome."

Blaine bites his lip as they glare at each other. "Come on, guys, let's go pick out a movie."

"You guys go," Finn tells them. "I'll make breakfast since Kurt's got lunch."

Kurt looks taken aback. "Oh, okay, thanks." Blaine's perpetually amused at their ability to switch back and forth between irritation and affection like that.

Blaine follows him into the living room and they settle themselves onto the floor to rifle through the DVDs. "Breakfast, huh?"

Kurt doesn't say anything, just pulls out a few DVDs and shrugs.

"Is he a good cook?" Blaine asks.

Kurt mulls it over. "Not bad, actually. Not that I'll eat much, though."

"Why?"

Kurt looks up then. "Because I'm pretty sure grease and animal lard are the two main ingredients in anything he makes."

Blaine laughs. "Gross."

He shrugs. "He always means well, though. Sometimes I forget that."

"Like when he's accidentally hurling phones at your head?"

"Yes," he says with an eye roll. "Exactly like that."

Blaine stands to make his way over to his duffel bag and rummages through it until he finds a pair of comfortable gray sweats and an old OSU t-shirt.

"Here," he says as he hands them to Kurt. "Go change."

Kurt lowers the DVDs in his hand and nods. "I'll change upstairs," he tells him. "If Finn walks in to see me undressing in front of you, I'm almost positive he'll have a seizure. And we're talking grand mal."

Blaine doesn't say anything because he's mostly focusing on Kurt wearing his clothes and trying to figure out why it's such a big deal. While Kurt's upstairs, he sifts through a few more DVDs and pulls a few out to see if they meet the approval of everyone else. When he comes back down the steps, he looks a little self-conscious, and yeah, Kurt wearing his clothes is as exactly as awesome as Blaine thought it'd be.

"Comfortable," is all he says, not meeting Blaine's eyes.

"Right," Blaine agrees, voice thick.

Kurt looks up to meet his gaze and smiles when he sees Blaine looking sort of shell-shocked. "Yeah?"

Blaine swallows and says, "When we live together, I'm going to make you wear my pajamas all of the time."

He looks sort of startled at the assumption but doesn't call Blaine out on it, probably because he knows he's the one that accidentally implied they'd be raising kids together someday.

Finn breaks the moment yet again and brings in a plate of buttered toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon. Blaine thinks it all tastes pretty amazing so he tries to forget about the lard thing.

They put Day After Tomorrow in and it's halfway over by the time Lydia gets there. Kurt doesn't put up a fight about watching a cliché disaster movie but Blaine figures out the reasoning when Kurt ends up curling into him on the couch and barely watches it.

Lydia lies her head on Finn's lap and he plays with her hair absently while still staying utterly focused on the movie like he hasn't seen it twenty times before. He looks completely relaxed and Blaine realizes how different it is from when they were in high school. Back then, Finn pointedly gave Kurt and Blaine their space and made an effort to not look at them when they were pressed up close on the couch like maybe he thought they needed privacy. He was never rude or offensive about it but Blaine always knew that he was marginally out of his element and sometimes just didn't know how to act or what to say even though he always _always_ tried.

Now, though, Finn barely registers that Kurt and Blaine are tangled up on the couch and Blaine realizes that it's because, in the best way possible, Finn simply doesn't care. Blaine's almost choked up at the idea of it; he's so integral to Kurt's life that no one bats an eye, that he and Kurt aren't even remotely novel anymore.

Lydia insists on Hairspray after that and Blaine's a little disappointed because Kurt shifts away now that he's actually interested in the movie selection.

"Come here," Blaine whispers ten minutes into the movie. Blaine tugs at him until Kurt's head is in his lap but Kurt's too involved in the movie to really pay attention.

Halfway through, he's kind of embarrassed to realize that he hasn't registered much of the movie and he's probably been pathetically staring at Kurt _wearing his clothes_ for maybe a half hour. He's not too worried about it, though, because he thinks that if his boyfriend can still distract him like that after four years, it's probably a good thing.

He glances up to see Finn giving him a small smile. Though he can't be sure, Blaine thinks he's just thankful that there's someone else looking after his brother, too.

::

An hour later Blaine remembers that, for all intents and purposes, Kurt and Finn are definitely brothers. They shift from friendly and peaceful to irritable and antagonizing so fast that it almost gives Blaine whiplash.

They're playing Uno on the floor as they work on the pizzas and Finn and Kurt are acting like _children._

"Stop it," Kurt hisses.

"I'm not getting caught with a Draw Two in my hand," Finn tosses back, angry.

"Ugh," he groans. "What is your _deal_? Lydia is beating me by like, fifty points. And Blaine is winning the game. I am literally in last place, Finn."

Finn doesn't say anything and Blaine looks over to see Lydia mirroring his own expression: biting her lip to prevent herself from laughing. When the play comes back around to Finn again, he lays down a Skip card and Kurt immediately looks up at him in surprise.

"Are you serious right now?"

Finn shrugs and gives him a defiant look. "You're not the boss of me."

Kurt lets out a dramatic, exasperated sigh. "I hate you."

"Finn," Lydia whispers. Finn looks up to meet her eyes and whatever he sees there makes him relax. He nods and Blaine can tell that he's done trying to instigate fights with Kurt.

"Kurt," Blaine says quietly, following her lead. Kurt looks up at him with irritation all over his face and Blaine just raises his eyebrows. Kurt blinks a few times and Blaine watches the tension slip from his shoulders. He sighs softly.

"Okay," he says to Blaine. "It's your turn." They smile at each other and Blaine can tell that he's finally done responding to Finn in the manner of a twelve-year-old. Well, probably for a few hours at least.

He and Lydia look at each other and Blaine shakes his head, amused. He loves the fact that Finn and Kurt have wholeheartedly accepted each other as family but wow, sometimes they act so ridiculous that Blaine forgets they weren't always brothers.

::

They play Monopoly after that and only thirty minutes in, Blaine realizes that Kurt is very, very good and Finn is very very bad; it's Uno all over again but with a role reversal. He's about to suggest a game change before Kurt has the chance to scatter hotels all over the board and gouge Finn for all he's worth but Lydia beats him to it. She casually suggests Scrabble and she and Blaine wordlessly decide to team up against their boyfriends. When Kurt and Finn are pitted against each other, they become obnoxious winners and sore losers but when Lydia and Blaine are both trying to bring them down, they unintentionally unite in brotherly solidarity and become a whole lot less insufferable. When Finn wins, he and Kurt high-five like maybe they think Finn couldn't have won without Kurt's assistance.

Blaine's pretty sure he's not alone in thinking that the loss is totally worth it.

::

A few hours later, Kurt's rummaging around for another DVD to put in and he looks thoughtfully at Lydia.

"Our boyfriends have dated the same girl," he says to her. "I just realized that."

Finn chokes on his Pepsi and Blaine's so startled that he almost falls off of the couch.

"Really?" she asks. "You mean Rachel?"

"Really," Kurt tells her. "She and Blaine totally dated."

"Okay, see, that's not entirely true," Blaine says from his spot on the couch.

Lydia watches Kurt with interest. "Wow, I never would have pictured that."

"I know," Kurt says. "But he was pretty much in love with her."

"Okay, see, now that's not even _remotely_ true," Blaine says again.

Finn regains his composure and clears his throat. "Let's talk about something else. Who's ready for dinner?"

They order take-out Chinese despite all of Kurt's complaints that the blood coursing through his veins is now probably ninety-five percent animal fat. They all ignore him, even Lydia.

Blaine leaves to go pick up the food and Lydia offers to go with him. She gives Finn a kiss goodbye and they stare at each other for a few moments before she and Blaine head outside.

"Aw, you two are still lovey dovey after two years," Blaine teases. "How cute."

"Two years still falls under the classification of honeymoon phase," she replies with a smile. "And you two have been dating twice as long so what's _your_ excuse?"

Blaine laughs because really, it's a good question.

When they get back to the house twenty minutes later, both he and Lydia are unsurprised to hear more fighting coming from the living room.

"You are not getting her a wire mesh organizer desk set for Christmas," Blaine hears Kurt say.

"It's for her dorm room," Finn retorts, sounding both defensive and irritated.

"If you buy that, Finn, then there's a good possibility that I'll never speak to you again."

"Is that all it takes?" he asks. "I wish I would have known that years ago."

Blaine and Lydia wait around the corner in the hallway to listen to the rest of the argument and they hear Kurt sigh. "Okay, Lydia then. _She_ might never speak to you again," Kurt tells him and he sounds incredibly put upon.

"No," he argues. "Lydia's not as high-strung as you are. She'll actually _like_ it."

"High strung?" Kurt repeats and then it's silent for a few minutes.

"If I was a violent person," he tells Finn, "I would throw this at your face."

Blaine has no idea what 'this' is but he's pretty sure it's a bad idea regardless.

Finn laughs. "And if you could throw it within three feet of me, I might actually be scared."

It's quiet for a minute and then they hear a bang. He and Lydia look at each other with wide eyes and Blaine wonders if it's time to go in and stop the argument. Then he hears them both start laughing and thankfully, Blaine can tell it's the kind where they're laughing _with_ each other.

"Oh my god, you actually tried to throw that at my face," Finn says and he sounds like he can barely catch his breath.

"Shut up," Kurt laughs back. "It was a good throw. Theoretically."

"It landed on the other side of the room from where I'm _standing_ ," Finn teases. "I don't even know how you were physically able to _do_ that."

They're both laughing so hard that Blaine's tempted to join in.

"And you almost broke the TV," Finn continues.

After a few more minutes Kurt tries to catch his breath and says, "I know. Don't tell our parents."

It gets kind of quiet after that and Blaine knows that even though they toss the word 'brother' around, they don't ever use the words 'our parents'. He figures it's because maybe Finn and Kurt think it's disrespectful to their _actual_ parents, like maybe they're replacing them by using those two words whereas neither of them had actual brothers to replace.

There's an awkward silence and Blaine's about to casually walk into the room to diffuse the tension when he hears Finn softly say, "I won't. I won't tell our parents."

Blaine is so grateful right then, so grateful that Finn's not hanging Kurt out to dry with the accidental slip and Blaine remembers, not for the first time, that the two of them can be so so juvenile towards each other but they can be so so good to each other, too.

While they all eat their Chinese together in relaxed silence, a sudden wave of gratitude washes over Blaine as he glances over at Lydia. He'll never quite understand the brotherly dynamic between Kurt and Finn, nor does he ever expect to, so he's appreciative for an ally on the outside.

::

They put another movie in but Blaine doesn't even remember watching the opening credits. He wakes up to Kurt nudging his back. "We're pathetic," Kurt's whispering.

"What?" Blaine asks, still barely awake.

"We _are_ thirty," Kurt explains. "We're alone at my parents house and we _fall asleep_."

"It's all okay," he says, which really doesn't make any sense, and he tries to sit up. It's dark outside and Blaine has no idea what time it is but he knows it's still relatively early, too early for two college kids to be falling asleep when they could be out drinking like most other kids their age. He notices that Finn and Lydia are no longer on the other couch and he tries hard not to imagine what's going on in the room directly above.

"I had an agenda," Kurt whines with a sleepy sigh. "I had plans."

Blaine twists and lies back down; he settles his head under Kurt's chin and then presses his mouth to his neck to leave a small, quick kiss. "It's fine, Kurt," he insists. "We have the house to ourselves this week. We don't need to be in any kind of rush."

Kurt mumbles something but then Blaine can hear him fall back asleep. He doesn't worry about grabbing a blanket or turning off the TV or putting the leftover Chinese in the fridge. Instead he does absolutely nothing but lie there and feel Kurt's chest rise and fall with the steady inhale and exhale.

It's the most uneventful day of his life and he wonders when they'll get a chance to do it all over again. As Blaine falls asleep, he thinks about being old and gray with Kurt and wonders if every day will be sort of be like Sunday.

:::

**Friday:**

It's the first Friday of the summer before their last year in college when they start their cross-country road trip. Kurt barely complains when Blaine insists that they spend just one night in a tent at a campground in Colorado; Blaine returns the favor by not saying much when Kurt requires an entire day for shopping in New Mexico on their way back. They're somewhere in Oklahoma when Blaine realizes that he can't remember what it feels like to not be in love with Kurt Hummel.

It's a Friday when Blaine graduates and he's stunned speechless when he sees Kurt standing with his parents after the ceremony's over. Kurt smiles at him and says that he can only stay for a half hour; it's at least an eleven hour drive back to school and his exam starts in thirteen.

It's Friday when Wes invites them to his wedding. He tells Blaine that he'd like to have a Warblers reunion to sing a few songs at the reception and asks if he thinks Kurt would be interested. At Blaine's surprised expression, Wes tells him that Kurt will always be a Warbler, that he's been a Warbler since he first showed up at Dalton, even if they didn't know it yet. He says it's just like how Blaine's always been a little in love with Kurt, that's he's been in love with him since he first showed up at Dalton, even if he didn't know it yet.

It's a Friday when they move the last box into their new apartment in Pittsburgh. Burt claps Blaine on the shoulder and tells him that he's never asked them to hide who they are but if Blaine decides to become a Steelers fan, he doesn't ever want to know. Carole hugs him tightly and reminds them that Lima is only four hours away.

It's a Friday when Finn asks Kurt to be a godfather. He gives Blaine an apologetic smile and promises him that he can have the next one.

It's a Friday when they meet up with Nick, Jeff, and Thad at a Dalton alumni dinner even though Blaine's not really supposed to be there. They ask if Blaine and Kurt could finally get married already because they've had a bet since their freshman year of college on who Blaine will choose as his best man. Nick tells Kurt that the pot's up to six hundred dollars and that he wants to buy a boat so he could really use some extra money.

It's a Friday when Blaine's dad offhandedly introduces Kurt as his son-in-law even though he isn't, not yet. Kurt keeps his face neutral and never says a word about it but Blaine can tell he's intensely grateful for the unspoken casual invitation to be included in the family at last.

It's a Friday when Blaine finds out that there's finally an opening for him in New York. Rachel calls later that night and asks if they'll come to her show when they move now that she officially has a lead. Then she asks if they'll get married when they move now that it's officially legal.

It's a Friday when they show up to the McKinley ten-year reunion. Mr. Schuester pulls Blaine aside and tells him not to say anything to the others but that he and Kurt were secretly his favorite glee club couple.

And it's a Friday when Burt and Carole renew their vows; Kurt's teary eyed and laces his fingers through Blaine's, who holds on tightly. Kurt says something nonsensical about Friday being a good day to get married and Blaine whispers something maudlin about loving Kurt no matter what day of the week.


End file.
